effectiveness. The man who is ordered to fire at a given instant must often lose something of his accuracy and aim. A Pathan crouching behind a rock and hearing the rattle of a volley on the stones round him knows that he has a few seconds in which he can show himself and deliver his shot in perfect safety. And, finally, the inevitable use of extended order against foes armed with modern weapons has made volley firing almost impossible, since, with men ten or twenty paces (or even further) apart, no commander can exercise an effective control over every shot fired even by a small body of men. Although the volley can be used at extreme ranges when it is not necessary to open the line of men to intervals, yet such occasions must be so rare, and the advantage in such circumstances so small, as not to compensate for the trouble of learning an otherwise unnecessary exercise. If, as seems certain, in the battles of the future from 90 to 95 per cent. of the firing must be independent, is it worth while to teach two systems of fire? at least, would it not be better to concentrate attention on that one which is indispensable? So far as we have heard, the control of independent fire has in the Boer War been found much less difficult than was expected. Men fighting in scattered formations soon realise how vital it is to husband every round. The long distances of present-day fighting tell against panic and the unthinking waste of cartridges.

The developement of the drill book and the firing exercises has mainly consisted in cutting away unnecessary complications since the time (three hundred years ago) when almost every mathematical permutation and combination of figures was exhausted in the complicated countermarchings, turnings, and formations which were then considered necessary to the art of a soldier. This process of cutting away all that is not essential is being continued with advantage at the present day.

CHAPTER V

EARLY SPORTING RIFLES-SIR SAMUEL BAKER'S RIFLES-CAPT. FORSYTH'S EXPRESS RIFLE-THE 'FIELD'

VIEWS-THE

DUCTION

OF

CALIBRE-PENETRATION

TRIALS, 1883-THE REAND EXPANSION OF MODERN RIFLES ACCURACY-TRAJECTORY TABLES-SINGLE AND DOUBLE RIFLES -BALL AND SHOT GUNS-ROOK AND GALLERY RIFLES-CLUB RIFLES— THE MORRIS TUBE-ADAPTORS FOR MILITARY RIFLES

THE developement of sporting rifles, beginning, as we have seen, earlier than that of military rifles, has, nevertheless, in later times, followed that of military arms. It may almost be said that the history of the latter is the history of the former. The fact that the fouling was so great a cause of difficulty in firing a series of shots in a short time with the rifle was of far less importance when it was used for sporting purposes than as a soldier's weapon. We have seen that Alonso de Espinar says that tightly fitting bullets, driven by force into the grooving, and fired without the wadding soaked in pitch, which he recommends, cannot be got into the barrel for two shots running on account of the fouling, and that the barrel has to be washed before loading again. He seems to have done something in his day towards solving the problem by using a wadding of the proper kind.

Certainly the earliest rifled arms with which we are acquainted are sporting arms, and not military, and weak as were the charges and short the distances at which game was killed in early days, the improved accuracy of the rifle was certainly appreciated. We may take it that the Continental rifles used in Switzerland and the Tyrol in the eighteenth century existed primarily as sporting weapons. It would naturally be in shooting chamois, roe-deer, or larger game that the advantage in range given by the rifle over the smooth-bore would most clearly appear. We have already said something of these Continental rifles, and also of the rifles used in the American war early in the eighteenth

use.

EARLY SPORTING RIFLES

129

century. These were made primarily for the backwoodsman's The Kentucky pea-rifle, really a generic term for the rifles of small calibre used by the American hunters, carried a very small round ball (for lead was very scarce, and the hunter had to make his own bullets), propelled by a charge of powder not very large, for powder also had to be economised, yet ample to give the ball considerable velocity. It is clear that for dangerous game, such as bears, these rifles lacked power, whence probably arose the terrible reputation of the grizzly bear; but their accuracy was admirable, even if it was not quite up to the standard of the heroic feats recorded in Fenimore Cooper's novels. Colonel Hanger speaks of the American rifle used in the war as having carried a ball of thirty-six to the pound, that is, it was a half-inch bore-very small compared with the musket. But the real pea-rifle was of a very much smaller bore than this. One which formerly belonged to Sir Henry Halford, and is in the possession of the writer, with a barrel 45 inches long, has a calibre of only 390. Greener speaks of the American rifles as being in some cases as small as 90-bore, i.e., about 370 bore.

The rifles used even for dangerous game in India, and in Africa, were up to the middle of the nineteenth century what we should now call very feeble weapons. The normal weapon seems to have been generally of from 12- to 16-bore, firing a spherical bullet of an ounce or So. The distances at which such rifles were effective were not great, the velocity being very moderate, and the striking power rapidly lost in flight. The smooth-bore, in fact, held its own very fairly for all sorts of jungle-shooting until quite modern times. Very accurate shooting could be obtained from small-bore rifles. made to fire light charges for rook-shooting and the like; these were effective at no very great distance, for the trajectory was very curved. There seems to have been almost no attempt to produce a rifle of large bore and smashing power until, in 1840, Sir Samuel Baker, having had experience in the East with the want of effect of the ordinary rifles upon big and dangerous game, designed a large and heavy rifle, which he afterwards used with great success. This rifle is described by Mr. Greener in The Gun and its Development.'

K

It weighed 21 lb., and fired a charge of 16 drachms, with a round bullet 3 oz. in weight; it was nearly an inch in calibre, and it had two broad grooves, making one turn in the length of the barrel. This rifle was made by Gibbs, of Bristol. Sir Samuel Baker afterwards used with success a doublebarrelled 10-bore (770 inch) rifle made on the same principle. These heavy rifles furnished a type for the elephant rifles of 4-bore and 8-bore so frequently used afterwards.

An interesting picture of the condition of the sporting rifle in 1863 is given in Captain Forsyth's book, The Sporting Rifle and its Projectiles.' Writing as a sportsman of large Indian experience, he distinguishes two classes of rifles, the deer rifle, which is carried by the sportsman himself, and the heavy rifle for dangerous game, to be carried by a gun bearer. He distinguishes the requirements of the sporting rifle, as against the military rifle, in its not being used at long ranges. He adds that the sporting rifle should give not merely a penetrating but a disabling wound; and he draws attention to the importance, where penetration is equal, of having a projectile which should have a large striking surface; he would therefore use the largest bore of rifle consistent with the limitations of its weight. The rifle must be accurate up to 150 (Sir Samuel Baker says 200) yards, for practically all shots in jungle-shooting are within 100 yards. The trajectory must be as flat as possible. He cites the Kentucky rifle as an ideal in this respect. He considers 9 lb. as about the limit of weight for a rifle to be carried by the shooter; the recoil must not be excessive, and the barrels must be short and handy. In dealing with the question of the bullet he agrees with Sir Samuel Baker that its anterior surface must not be sharper than a hemisphere, as the effect of the bullet should be rather in the nature of a blow than a penetrating thrust. His conclusion is that a rifle taking a spherical ball should be used with a large charge of powder. The spiral for a barrel of 14-bore he puts, as previously mentioned, at one turn in 8 feet 8 inches, the grooves being very shallow and broad, and the bullet wrapped in a patch. With such a rifle firing its ordinary load he makes the height of the 100 yards trajectory to be as little as

CAPTAIN FORSYTH'S VIEWS

131

2 inches at 50 yards. He does not say what the normal charge was, nor does he define the term 'point-blank,' which he uses when he says that the point-blank of this rifle with 3 drachms. is about 60 yards; with 4 drachms, about 85 yards; with 5 drachms, 100 yards.' His objection to the use of conical bullets is that they either penetrate too much, or, if made expansive, open without sufficient penetration; and that the velocities which General Jacob obtained from them are insufficient to deal with heavy game. The best of the rifles of that time which fired conical bullets he considers to be Purdey's two-grooved rifle, with one turn in 6 feet of barrel, which was accurate, but would not kill on the spot anything larger than wild antelope or bustard. He makes his comparisons, however, by comparing rifles of the same bore, carrying spherical bullets, against those carrying conical, and consequently finds that within the limits of the weight of the rifles the former have the advantage in velocity, and therefore in trajectory at sporting ranges. He does not consider, as we should at the present day, the total striking effect of the bullets, and the problem of regulating a conical bullet to give the precise amount of penetration and expansion required was. far from being solved.

Captain Forsyth was not alone in his views. Mr. Greener says in his book, 'Gunnery in 1858,' that for other purposes than war rifles will continue to be constructed on the polygroove principle, and with spherical bullets. He adds that small-bore elongated bullets were very rapidly adopted for sporting purposes, and as rapidly abandoned, because they did not kill dead.' It is proverbially dangerous to prophesy, and Mr. Greener was not fortunate in some of his predictions. His forecast that for close quarters, line-firing, or quickness of loading the musket will hold its place for centuries to come' has by no means been justified by the event.

Sir Samuel Baker found, naturally enough, that with his very heavy two-grooved rifle a spherical 3-oz. bullet would stop a charging elephant, but says that a 4-oz. conical bullet quite destroyed the effect of this rifle. The spherical ball was certainly effective enough, and so the change was unnecessary. About this time the ingenuity of gunmakers was